John’s post is an interview with Gary Doucet, Chief Architect for the Canadian Federal Government. (He was a keynote speaker at an Danish Government architecture conference in Århus in April – hence the Denmark connection.) What’s clear from the interview is that there in Canada the entire architecture process is business-driven – not IT-driven. In fact there were only passing references to IT and CIOs and the rest of the IT-centric stuff: instead, the emphasis was on business-centric themes such as their Business Transformation Enablement Program and Municipal Services Reference Model.

That’s the big difference: the ‘big countries’ EA is still clinging (with increasing desperation?) to the IT-centric view, whereas the ’small countries’ EAs have long since recognised that it’s a dead-end, and that we must wrest control of EA from IT if we’re going to get anywhere worth while.

Yet another reason why it’s so damn frustrating being here in Britain: it should be a powerhouse in EA, and yet by comparison with Australia it feels like a stagnant backwater. But I’s here for the while, so just have to get on with what I have and where I am, I guess. Hey ho.

But go look at John’s interview with Gary Doucet: a solid sense of realism there, rather than the usual US/GB IT-centric hype. Recommended.